How CISOs Can Drive Strategic Board Conversations

Here’s what chief information security officers and directors both need to consider to ensure effective cybersecurity collaboration.

Board meetings are a crucial forum for chief information security officers (CISOs) to bridge the gap between technical cybersecurity operations and the strategic imperatives of the organization.

Too often, these conversations are derailed by technical jargon or disconnected from the board’s core priorities: shareholder value, risk reduction, and business growth. For meetings to be effective, CISOs should tailor their approach by translating risk into terms the full board understands, aligning security with business goals, and fostering a collaborative relationship with the board.

Speak the Board’s Language

No two boards are alike. Directors bring varied financial, legal, operational, and other skill sets, and each lens shapes how a director perceives risk and opportunity.

Before stepping into the boardroom, CISOs should research the professional backgrounds and interests of the board members. This enables CISOs to craft narratives and examples that resonate; for example, they can highlight regulatory compliance for the board’s legal experts or operational continuity for those with a supply chain focus.

In addition, boards as a whole think in terms of probability, financial exposure, and business impact, not technical controls or acronyms. Practical risk quantification models, such as FAIR, or Factor Analysis of Information Risk, allow CISOs to present information in a way that boards will understand and to estimate the following:

• Loss event frequency. How often might a significant cyber incident occur?
• Loss magnitude. What is the potential financial cost?
• Business impact. How would such an event affect revenue, operations, or brand reputation?

For example, a CISO might present the following scenario: “The risk of a ransomware attack this year is 10 percent. If it occurs, the average loss would be $7 million.” Or, a CISO could tie a specific risk to a business outcome: “A breach of our customer portal could reduce revenue by 5 percent this quarter due to lost transactions and diminished customer trust.”

Presenting information in these terms makes the risks tangible and actionable, allowing the board to weigh cybersecurity investments against other business priorities.

For the board’s part, directors should consider whether they’re comfortable with the level of detail presented; whether they’d benefit from scenario-planning exercises or simulations to better understand potential impacts; and if they should adopt standardized risk metrics, such as value at risk, to benchmark cyber risk alongside financial risks.

Align Security with Business Goals

To gain buy-in, CISOs must show how cybersecurity enables the company’s mission and supports strategic objectives. Every organization today is, in some sense, a digital business. Trust underpins every digital service and transaction; its erosion directly impacts sales, brand loyalty, and market share.

Examples of aligning information security with business goals include the following:

• International expansion. If a company aims to enter new markets, cybersecurity certifications, such as ISO 27001 or General Data Protection Regulation compliance, become enablers, not obstacles.
• Shareholder value and continuity. To protect shareholder value, CISOs can advocate for investments in cyber resilience, such as immutable backups and robust incident response plans, to minimize the risk of brand-damaging attacks that could trigger a drop in stock price.
• Compliance and regulatory risk. For organizations facing regulatory scrutiny, creating operational efficiency and risk reduction measures that streamline risk logging, monitoring, and response in a centralized governance, risk, and compliance platform builds trust with business units, reduces downtime, and aligns cybersecurity investment with business continuity goals.

By mapping information security initiatives to these goals, CISOs can demonstrate that cybersecurity is not just a cost center but also a driver of business value and competitive advantage.

Foster Open Dialogue

Effective boardroom communication is a two-way street. The CISO should invite questions from directors about the organization’s risk profile, preparedness, and resilience. At the same time, the CISO should ask the board about its risk appetite and strategic concerns, fostering a reciprocal relationship built on trust and shared accountability.

Filtering out operational noise is essential. Board discussions should focus on high-level metrics and scenarios that matter, such as impacts on revenue, brand reputation, and the organization’s ability to  recover from a major incident. Regular, structured updates grounded in business terms help build the board’s confidence in the cybersecurity program and in the CISO’s leadership.

Become Strategic Partners

By adopting these approaches, CISOs transform from technical experts into trusted advisors, helping boards make informed decisions that protect value, reduce risk, and drive the organization forward.

In addition, there are several questions directors can ask to consider whether the board’s current approach ensures that cybersecurity is viewed as a core business risk rather than a technical issue:

• Are we quantifying cyber risk in financial terms that align with our risk appetite?
• How does our cybersecurity strategy support our broader business goals?
• What is our organization’s resilience to major cyber incidents, and how quickly can we recover?
• Are we investing in the right areas to meet compliance requirements and enable growth?
• How deeply integrated is cybersecurity oversight within our governance framework?
• Should cybersecurity be treated as a standalone agenda item, or woven into every discussion about business risk and opportunity?
• Should we consider forming a dedicated cybersecurity committee or enhancing existing governance structures? Which benchmarks or metrics would help us gauge whether cybersecurity investments deliver value?

By framing cybersecurity as a strategic enabler, CISOs can help boards navigate the dynamic risk landscape and ensure that security is at the heart of business decision-making.

Optiv is a NACD sponsor, providing directors with critical and timely information, and perspectives. Optiv is a financial supporter of the NACD.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent the perspective of NACD.